University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses November 2016 THE HARMONIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF PEONY PAVILION & THE LUTE Alexander McCartin University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Recommended Citation McCartin, Alexander, "THE HARMONIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF PEONY PAVILION & THE LUTE" (2016). Masters Theses. 435. https://doi.org/10.7275/8911779 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/435 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE HARMONIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF PEONY PAVILION & THE LUTE A Thesis Presented by ALEXANDER P. MCCARTIN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS September 2016 Chinese © Copyright by Alexander P. McCartin 2016 All Rights Reserved THE HARMONIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF PEONY PAVILION & THE LUTE A Thesis Presented by ALEXANDER P. MCCARTIN Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________ Elena Suet-Ying Chiu, Chair ______________________________ David K. Schneider, Member ______________________________ Zhijun Wang, Member _____________________________ David K. Schneider, Unit Director _____________________________ William Moebius, Chair Languages, Literatures, and Cultures DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my parents Philip and Lorraine McCartin for their encouragement and support throughout the writing of this thesis. I could not have done it without them. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first and foremost thank my advisor Professor Elena Suet-Ying Chiu for her dedication and assistance with my thesis. It would not be complete without her help. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my committee members Professor David K. Schneider and Professor Zhijun Wang for their help with this endeavor. I would like to thank Tina Johnson from the Graduate Registrar’s Office for her help in formatting my thesis. I would like to thank Cindy Utama from Disability Services for her assistance as well. Lastly, I am grateful for Dr. Deborah Berkman and Dr. Stewart Ascher from the UMass Center for Counseling and Psychological Health for their care. My parents have always been a huge source of support for me throughout the entire process. I am incredibly grateful for their support. I would also like to thank friends and other family members for the encouragement as well. v ABSTRACT THE HARMONIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF PEONY PAVILION & THE LUTE SEPTEMBER 2016 ALEXANDER P. MCCARTIN, B.A., HOBART & WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Elena Suet-Ying Chiu This thesis explores the harmonious endings of two different Chinese plays The Lute and Peony Pavilion. The harmonious conclusions reflect unique aspects of Chinese culture such as Confucian ethics and norms. The analysis of these harmonious conclusions provides a further analysis of the text throughout the plays. The happy endings do not occur without strife. The conflict found in the plays is examined to demonstrate the factors that lead to the transformation from conflict to harmony. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 1. HARMONY IN PEONY PAVILION .................................................................................... 21 1.1 Peony Pavilion: Bridal Du’s Journey ................................................................ 21 1.2 Bridal Du’s Turmoil in Peony Pavilion ............................................................. 25 1.3 The Path to Harmony in Peony Pavilion .......................................................... 28 1.4 Du Bao’s Doubt ............................................................................................... 31 1.5 Harmony at Last in Peony Pavilion .................................................................. 33 2. HARMONY IN THE LUTE ................................................................................................ 36 2.1 The Tale of The Lute ........................................................................................ 36 2.2 Wuniang’s Character ....................................................................................... 41 2.3 The Blissful Reunion ........................................................................................ 46 2.4 Barriers to Harmony in The Lute ..................................................................... 50 2.5 Harmony Amongst the Characters in The Lute ............................................... 55 3. FATE & THE SUPERNATURAL......................................................................................... 59 3.1 The Importance of the Supernatural in Relation to Harmony ........................ 59 3.2 The Spirit World in The Lute ........................................................................... 62 3.3 The Spirit World in Peony Pavilion: The Dream in the Garden ....................... 66 3.4 The Spirit World in Peony Pavilion: The Underworld Scene ........................... 67 4. FACTORS BEHIND THE HAPPY ENDING ......................................................................... 72 4.1 The Story of “Zhao The Chaste Maid”, The Lute & Ungrateful Scholar Plays ......................................................................................................... 72 vii 4.2 Popular Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Drama .......................................... 77 4.3 The Authors’ Background & Motivations ....................................................... 80 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 89 viii INTRODUCTION Life could be depicted as a stage and humans through thoughts and actions craft their own destiny through a performance of sorts. Time passes by with no intermission from beginning to end birth to death, and despite the part we are dealt in the evolution of modern civilization how we express our individual style and voice plays such an important role. Time after time the rich legacy left behind by Chinese drama has such a deep tradition and strength despite the changes in society across thousands of years. Two particular literary works that have become iconic elements of this legacy are Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭 and The Lute 琵琶记. The authors of both plays, Tang Xianzu (1550- 1616) and Kao Ming (1305-1370), contributed immensely to the progression of Chinese theater through their masterpieces. Peony Pavilion is particularly well known within and beyond the Chinese sphere of theater and drama, but both plays have their own significance across space and time. Both depict a main protagonist undergoing various changes through adversity amongst other matters. The similarities begin with such aspects as filial piety. The differences are more extensive involving individual choice and the tone of the play amongst other respects. A comparison and contrast of both texts can be analyzed from such a foundational approach. As with every other major culture and civilization in the world, the ways in which human nature manifests itself was ripe for debate, discussion, and inquiry. From the early times of Confucianism in China, the essence of human nature has been a primary focus for such rhetorical discourse. Confucian ideas regarding human nature influence 1 both The Lute and Peony Pavilion. Philosophers such as Xunzi 荀子 maintained that left to their own devices humans have harmful tendencies and must rely on education and other scholastic pursuits to stay morally virtuous.1 In addition to scholarly pursuits, family honor was another attribute highly venerated by Confucius, “The family was therefore assumed to be the paradigm of the moral life of every individual and was put forward as a model for all society. According to this view, social life was studded with a complex structure of obligations founded on specific norms, and the norms of good conduct that are inspired by these rites.”2 Such a structure provided a sense of order in society. Even a link with this world and the supernatural world could be established through such an arrangement.3 A movement toward abiding by such social norms paved the way for a harmonious conclusion to the plays. Therefore, dualities such as peace versus conflict, and the human world versus the supernatural world are integral parts of these two plays. Another duality in Chinese culture involves the interaction of the concepts li 理 and qing 情. There is a deep historical relationship between li and qing in Chinese culture. Li is a concept that has garnered much respect throughout Chinese literature. However, qing has not received the same types of positive attributes. There has been much speculation over the benefits